The more things change
by ChibiMilly
Summary: Five years after Jinx joined the Titans, the Hive Five are disbanded. But when Mammoth comes under threat, SeeMore has to reunite them.
1. Chapter 1

Well, at least this hasn't changed, See-More thought to himself.

The old Hive Five headquarters. It was still a mess, half-cleaned up after the Kid Flash incident from about 5 years ago. At least Jinx hadn't led the Titans to this. It would have been a shame to lose it. After all, it was a piece of their memories.

Hive Five was mostly off the radar nowadays. When law enforcement came back to the Brain's hideout to cuff everyone and unfreeze them, they made a mistake with the Hive Five. They had prepared for Mammoth's massive strength, Gizmo's ingenuity, Billy's duplications, and See-More's eye tricks. And they thought they had prepared for Kyd Wykkyd.

Fortunately, they hadn't. They thought he was just a teleporter. With a little work, he sharpened his cape and sliced through the cuffs, allowing them to escape.

It had been a long time since that, See-More thought, drumming his fingers against his jeans. He opted for civvies today.

For awhile, they stayed together. They found a new hideout, because they thought for sure that the Titans would raid their old one. They did jobs, lived together, took care of each other. And it was good, despite the loss of their former member.

But eventually, they just got tired of it. They got tired of fighting and losing. They got tired of going to jail and breaking out.

So the team broke up.

See-More, now twenty years old, sat on the familiar couch. With curiosity on his mind, he found the remote and flipped the TV on.

"Heh. They never did manage to trace Gizmo stealing cable, not even now..."

After 20 minutes of personal silence, watching the flickering screen, he turned it off and sighed. 5 years since the Kid Flash incident. 2 and a half years since all of the Hive Five – well, all of them excepting Jinx - had been together.

Samuel Beckinson, AKA, See-More, sighed again.

He had gone straight. In a sense. No one except those who were members of the Hive Five knew of his past as See-More. Now, as Samuel Beckinson, he was simply a promising college student.

Samuel didn't really know what had happened to the rest of the Hive Five. He wished he did.

Well, he did have a general idea. There were always reports of tech going haywire – the kind of haywire that was looking to do damage or somehow stole items or money. Sam often chalked those up to Gizmo, who was finally learning the meaning of stealth. Billy and Wykkyd lived together now as outlaws, he knew that much. Didn't know exactly where, though.

Jinx, obviously, was well into the good graces of heroes. 5 years since Jinx joined the good guys, of course she made her way up. She was an honorary Titan, she fought evil, so on and so forth. Inside his mind, he groaned. He had lost his chance to be with Jinx a long time ago, but he would've settled for being friends with her. She was a good guy, and she was still with Flash. Very little chance of being friends now.

Mammoth had completely disappeared. He was just gone. The rest of the Hive Five didn't know where he went.

And Private Hive, well, he was still in an insane asylum. Mother Mae-Eye fucked him up but good.

See-More kicked back in the couch, looking up at the beat up ceiling of the living room. For a long while, he just looked, breathed, and blinked.

He missed the good old days.

From the pocket of his jeans came a ring. Casually, he reached in and opened it up, speaking with a monotone voice into it.

"Hello?" He said.

"Samuel Beckinson?" Came a scratchy, raspy voice on the other end.

"That's me. Who is this?"

"That's not important, Sam. Or should I say, See-More?"

Sam froze up. That wasn't Billy, Gizmo, or Mammoth's voice. Nobody else was supposed to know who he was.

"What are you talking about?" Sam said, trying to stay relaxed and play it off.

"Don't play dumb with me, Sam. I know you're See-More. And don't ask how I know that, that's not important either."

Sam gritted his teeth. He didn't like this. Someone he didn't know who knew his past. He didn't reveal it to anyone outside of the Hive Five, he made sure of it. Who the hell could this person be?

"What do you want?"

"Not what I want. I have information you should know."

"You'll excuse me if I don't believe you."

"You don't have a choice, See-More. This is too important for you to ignore."

"So what the hell is so important that some stranger who knows who I am calls me up on my cellphone to be all ominous!" See-More growled, getting frustrated.

"It's Mammoth, See-More. He's in trouble."

Mammoth?

He had disappeared, with only a friendly goodbye note left behind…but the Hive Five figured he could take care of himself. He was Mammoth, after all. Who would try to mess with him?

"What have you done to Mammoth?" He snapped, his voice making him much less intimidating than he wanted to be.

"I haven't done anything, See-More. But what these people are doing is taking advantage of Mammoth's near-indestructible body. Using him as a guinea pig for all sorts of nasty stuff."

"How do you know this?"

"I can't tell you that. I will give you more information on this group as soon as I can. However, till then, that's all I have."

"Why should I trust you?" See-More continued, stuck between concern for Mammoth and anger towards this stranger.

"You have to, See-More. For Mammoth's sake."

The conversation went dead for a short while. See-More didn't know how to respond to that.

So he changed the subject.

"What do you want?"

"I already said –"

"No. Strangers don't call me up and tell me Mammoth's in trouble just out of the goodness of their hearts. What do you want?"

The man on the other end stopped. After a brief pause, he spoke again.

"I want you to get the Hive Five back together. And I want you to go save Mammoth."

"Wait –"

"That's what I want, See-More. Believe it. Go get the Hive Five together. I'll contact you with more information later."

The line went dead.

Angrily, See-More shut the phone, and stomped off to find his old room inside the Hive Five base.

After all, he was going to need to get an extra costume and his helmet.


	2. Chapter 2

The costume was in a duffel bag, folded and pressed to the side, with the green helmet resting against it. He didn't need a whole hell of a lot for his trip. Mostly reserves of stolen cash from way back, a few pairs of clothing, food, and of course, his old Hive Five communicator. That was a piece of equipment that was absolutely essential.

He had already tried to find Mammoth's signal on it. No luck, but he knew it was a longshot when he tried it. The communicator's real use was for being able to find the other members of the Hive Five without having to search newspaper clippings and fork over money to people who sold info.

He already knew where Jinx was. He thought about trying to get her in on this. In fact, he was still thinking about it. His mind hadn't been made up yet. It was incredibly conflicting.

For the moment, however, he dropped this problem from his thoughts. He contacted Billy and Wykkyd first, told them they needed to meet. That it was important. Billy had tried to keep the atmosphere light, like he always did, but See-More insisted on keeping things serious. Which left Billy concerned.

With the duffel bag slung over his shoulder, See-More reached into his pocket, pulling out a piece of paper. On it in black ink was the words "Low Places – Houston, Texas." That's where Billy told See-More to meet him.

See-More looked in front of him at a bar lit only by a few streetlamps on this Texan night. Above the door was a sign reading, in beat up letters, 'Low Places'.

With a slow and deliberate pace, he opened the door and walked in. There weren't many people inside, making Billy and Wykkyd easy to spot, even if they weren't smiling and waving to him from the bar. Billy, naturally, threw in a yell calling Sam's name.

Sam faintly grinned and walked over, sitting next to Billy. He ordered a glass of Jack Daniels and then turned to face his old friends.

"Long time no see, Sam." Billy said, brushing his short brown hair to the side. There was no need to wear costumes here. Wykkyd nodded with Billy, his pure red eyes showing that he was very glad to see See-More again.

"Yeah. What the hell have you two been up to?" Sam replied, clutching the delivered alcohol in his right hand.

"Aw, same old, same old, man. Steal, have fun, good times an' all. Ah've been happy, you betcha." Billy smirked, and threw an arm around Wykkyd, who blushed a little. No one had expected it, but Billy and Wykkyd grew close in the Hive Five, and had only gotten closer after the group disbanded. See-More had always been slightly jealous of Billy for that. He had been good friends with Wykkyd as well, and he never had a chance to figure out how far it could have gone. It didn't help that See-More had a thing for the Goth look – Jinx, Wykkyd, and others.

Still, that was a long time ago, and Sam let it pass.

"So, what about you, Sam? Whatcha been up to?"

"Uh... I've been a college student." He said, scratching his neck, embarrassed.

"No way! You shittin' me?"

"Afraid not, Billy. Didn't know what to do after the Hive Five broke up, so... I went to college."

"Jeez." Billy said, surprised. Wykkyd tilted his head, looking at See-More curiously.

"Well, Gizmo's still doin' th' villain thing," Billy spoke again, still upbeat. "An' ah bet Mammoth's out kicking ass like always."

"Actually, Billy... Mammoth is why I'm here." Sam cut in, bringing in a tone of seriousness he wished he didn't need to.

"Why? What's Mammoth gone an' done? Need breaking out of jail?" Billy said, pulling Wykkyd a little closer.

"Not exactly. Mammoth's being used as an experiment somewhere. Needles and shocks – that kind of thing."

Billy gaped. Hive Five was family to him, and of that family, Mammoth was undoubtedly the toughest. Even if he wasn't an abstract thinker in the least, there weren't many situations he couldn't punch his way out of. How could Mammoth get caught and used as a science experiment.

Similarly, Wykkyd's eyes went wide. Though he didn't look the part, Wykkyd was far from being a cold, aloof person. He was lighthearted and caring, although he couldn't show it with speech. During his time in the Hive Five, people came to count on him as a listener. Though Billy mostly capitalized on this by having someone who wouldn't mind him constantly talking, he was there for See-More after Jinx turned on them, as well as the rest of the Hive Five. To think that someone was hurting these friends of his appalled him – as well as infuriated him.

"Who's doing this?" Billy demanded, Wykkyd's facial expression in synch with what Billy was feeling.

"Even I don't know. I just got some anonymous guy on my phone telling me that Mammoth was being held and abused. He said he'd call with more information later."

"Fine." Billy replied, standing up and slamming a 20 dollar bill on the counter. See-More and Wykkyd stood up immediately afterwards. They walked out together, back into the Texan night with the flickering streetlamps.

"That your car?" Billy asked Sam.

"Yeah. Something wrong with it?"

"We're jus' gonna need better transportation fer somethin' like this. Probably somethin' that can fly. Maybe Gizmo can whip us something up?"

"Probably. I was going to call him next..."

Sam took out his Hive Five communicator, and flipped it open, before Billy stopped him short.

"Have ya told Jinx yet?"

"No..."

"Good. Don't." Billy said, sternly.

"Why not? She was Hive Five, she won't turn her back on this..."

"Uh-uh, See-More. After she was all pissing an' moaning 'bout joining th' brotherhood of evil, she goes to the Titans and locks US up. We didn't even wanna be with the brotherhood of evil! They muscled us into that shit!"

"I know, but..."

"No buts. She MIGHT help us go save Mammoth, sure. But what's she gonna do after that?"

See-More paused, gritting his teeth unpleasantly.

"She'll lock us up again."

Billy nodded. Wykkyd stayed still and in the back.

"'Zactly." Billy added. "So let's go get Gizmo an' then wait fer yer mystery friend to call us, and then let's go save Mammoth."

Sam nodded shortly. Now uninterrupted, he opened the communicator again, clicking on Gizmo's name.

Hopefully, he still had his Hive Five communicator.


	3. Chapter 3

"So, Mammoth's in trouble, huh?" Gizmo said, fusing metal together while he talked. Now into his teens, Gizmo hadn't grown an inch, but his face did become more defined, less circular. He was more focused as well, keeping his infamous short-temper in check even while he talked and worked at the same time.

"Yeah. He's getting experimented on, apparently." See-More said in response. Billy and Wykkyd, not having much to contribute at the moment, just looked around Gizmo's new lab, though being careful not to touch anything – one of the last incidents the Hive Five had came as a result of that, so they had to be more careful. What Gizmo was working on now looked to be a sleek form of aircraft, meant for a small group. And, naturally, he had decked it out with the latest weaponry.

"Do you know where Mammoth is?" Gizmo said sharply.

"Not yet."

"Do you know who gave you the information?"

"No, unfortunately."

Gizmo sighed, pulling up the blast shield over his face and resting his acetylene torch.

"Gimme your cell phone."

"What?"

"Just do it!" Gizmo snapped.

"Jeez, alright, calm down…" See-More took out his phone from his pocket, tossing it up to Gizmo, who was currently standing at the top of his ship. He snagged it in the air, and, in a flash of movement, took out a metallic pentagon shaped object with a large yellow G emblazoned on it, slapping it onto the back of the phone. Numbers and addresses began to fly across the screen. Gizmo watched it intently, up until it reached the last call.

No number. No address.

"Damnit. They must have some good tech to get by this." Dismissively, Gizmo threw the phone back to See-More on the ground.

"Couldn't find 'em, huh, Gizmo?" Billy asked, leaning against a wall.

"No, I couldn't." Gizmo huffed, obviously frustrated with himself. "He said he'd call you with more info later?"

"Yeah." See-More said simply. "So…you're gonna help, right?"

Gizmo cast a glare back at See-More, trying to be intimidating. Ultimately, however, he just leaned over himself and spoke. "Yeah, I'm gonna. I don't trust this crap, though. Mysterious callers, Mammoth in trouble, and wanting to round up the Hive Five again? Smells fishy."

"I don't trust it either, Gizmo, but what choice do we have?" See-More offered.

"We don't. That's the part that pisses me off the most." Gizmo snarled to himself, and walked down a step ladder back onto the ground. "So whatta we do 'till the guy calls again?"

"Is your ship done?" See-More asked.

"Yeah, give or take about thirty minutes. Why?"

Very faintly, See-More smirked.

---

Jinx leaned over a pile of papers, eyes and hands weary. She tapped a pen against one sheet, trying to think.

Her look hadn't changed much over the years. The costume, that is. But her body was more filled out, and she wore her hair down nowadays.

She heard rapidly approaching steps from the other end of the hallway. Quickly, she took the papers, put them in a pile, and shoved them into a desk drawer, locking it up as fast as she could. The steps slowed down, and she gave a sigh of relief. He always slowed down as he got close. And it always gave her enough time to make sure she had gotten everything.

Before he could knock, she swung the door open.

"Heya, cutie." Flash – no longer a kid – said.

"Hi." She offered a weak smile, obviously drained by her lack of sleep.

"Jeez, you don't look too good." Realizing what he just said could be interpreted as offensive, Flash quickly fumbled his words, trying to make the correct ones come out of his mouth. "I mean, you look great, you always do, but what I'm trying to say is, er, uh, that you –"

"I know what you mean, hon. Relax." She leaned in and pecked him on the cheek, pulling him slowly into her room.

Flash let his tenseness fade, and pulled back his mask, revealing the face of Wally West. He ran a hand through his hair and sat on her bed, looking up to her as she got drinks for them.

"So whatcha been up to?"

"Work."

"Work superhero, or do you mean you –"

"Uh-uh. Not so lame as to have gotten a real job yet." She smirked, bringing tea for both of them. "I've been training."

"Been at the Titans gym, huh?"

"No, not that training. I mean…mental training. I've been…having a detective friend send over cases, and I look over them, see what I can figure out."

"Cool. You been having Robin help with that?" Wally asked, then slurping some tea.

"No, these cases have already been solved, these are more like brain teasers, keeps my mind sharp. Lets me do more than just blow stuff up." She said with a low voice. Jinx yawned and sipped some of her tea.

"Mind if I take a look?" Wally asked with an upbeat, self-assured tone.

"No outside help. Part of the training." Jinx smirked again and sighed.

"You okay, Jinx?"

"I'm fine, Wally. Just need some sleep."

Wally frowned a bit. He had been looking forward to doing more than heading over and having a friendly chat. Jinx saw that and gave him a friendly smack on the head.

"Sorry, Wally, but no nookie for you this time." She said, teasingly. Wally brightened up a bit.

Suddenly, he felt the ring on his Titan communicator – he was trying to become Justice League, but for now, being a Titan wasn't bad at all.

It was Robin.

"Hey, Robin. What's up?"

"Got a robbery going on at First Jump City bank. You good to go?"

Wally nodded, slipping his mask back on, and turning to Jinx.

"You wanna come with, Jinx?"

"I'm beat, Wally. If you really need me, don't hesitate to call."

"Right. I'll be right there, Robin." He closed the communicator and rushed over to kiss Jinx, quickly speaking before running out the door.

"Love ya, Jinx."

And then he was gone.

Jinx laughed quietly to herself and replied "Love you too," even though he was far away from the room now.

She set the tea to the side, getting up and grabbing an energy drink from her fridge, pounding it down and coming back to her desk. She pulled out the papers, and went right back to work.

It definitely wasn't practice. This was far more important than mental exercises.


	4. Chapter 4

An armored car rushed down a Jump City street, careening at reckless speeds. Inside it was, as expected, large bags of money. An old-fashioned robbery. Other people pulled hostages and did embezzling scams – the Hive Five liked to keep it simple. Stealing was their thing, and they liked it that way. Gizmo, Jinx, and Mammoth had once got hired out by Slade, but that wasn't the group's style anymore (Save for the news which brought them back together at the moment).

So, even now, during their reunion, the Hive Five's tactics hadn't changed.

Much.

Flash trailed after the car, grinning ear to ear. It wouldn't be hard to catch up with it, provided nothing unexpected came up.

Robin was hopping from roof to roof, trying to pick up speed. He grabbed at the cable-line on his belt, getting ready to shoot himself a line.

Flash, on the other hand, was a little perplexed. All the car was doing was driving, albeit at high speeds. There wasn't anyone shooting at him, which was definitely off-key. Usually, a bank robbery? Someone was going to try to hit him with bullets, or lasers, or superpowers. Anything. That someone wasn't making an active attempt to stop him from getting close was weird, to say the least.

Robin never got a chance to shoot his cable-line. Seeing no reason not to, Flash picked up the speed, racing to the door, keeping by it's side while he looked in.

No one was driving the car.

"ROBIN! There's no one in the car!"

Robin frowned, thinking it over while his body moved on it's own, jumping from one building to the other without so much as a passing thought.

"Get back! I'm going to blow its tires!" Robin shouted back, reaching around for a few razorangs, throwing them with expert aim. The tires were slashed, and promptly blew out, skidding the car to a halt. Flash, now not having to worry about a friendly fire incident, ran back up to the driver's seat, forcing the door open, and examining the vehicle at super-speed.

He heard a beep. At first, he was confused.

Then he heard another. And another. And another. Each one picking up in speed after the last.

Finding the source of the noise, he looked underneath the dash – it was a tiny, nearly flat rectangular piece of metal, obviously high-tech. A red light flashed, dimmed, and then with another beep, flashed again. It did this again. Flash's eyes widened, and he bolted from the car, figuring neither of them had time to disarm the thing, or throw it somewhere safe.

"IT'S GONNA BLOW!" Flash yelled, getting a distance away from the car, glad his innate speed would easily carry him away from the blast radius. Robin followed suit. Fortunately, civilians had already gotten the sense to run away as the car barreled down the street.

The beeping grew more furious. It reached a climax, where one beep was almost synchronous with the next. The two heroes were on edge, just waiting for it to explode while they watched it.

Then, quite suddenly, the beeping simply stopped.

Still on alert, the two furrowed their brows, examining the car as best as they could from a distance.

Once roughly a minute had passed, Flash turned to Robin and spoke.

"A dud?"

"Looks like it." Robin replied, warily moving forward. He stepped into the driver's seat, looking around. Flash stepped in at his side a moment after.

"The bomb was under the dash." Flash said, cutting the search to its end.

Robin looked underneath and found… nothing.

"Its not THERE, Flash. Are you sure it was under the dash?"

"A hundred percent sure." He said, now just more confused.

With a not so well hidden frustration, Robin went back around, and checked the back of the armored car.

Snarling, after looking inside, he went back to Flash and tried to rearrange his own expressions to maintain a professional calm. It was necessary. He just didn't like losing without even a fight.

"The money's not there." He muttered.

"What? You serious?"

"Yeah. It's gone. All of it."

"But…that's crazy. We never saw anyone leave the vehicle…"

"And no one was driving it in the first place, Flash. Seems we have something more than a usual bank robbery on our hands."

He pulled out a tiny remote, and clicked a button, calling the R-Cycle to him. The police would be here soon enough to do the paperwork and such.

So, silently, he rode away back to Titans Tower.

Flash, on the other hand, stayed for a moment, still confused.

---

"Holy CRAP, Wykkyd, did you really get ALL of it?" Gizmo said, a little dumbfounded. Currently, he, and the rest of the Hive Five, were hiding out in a tiny safehouse in Jump City they had created way, way back.

Sweating a bit and breathing harder than usual, Wykkyd nodded. It wasn't easy work teleporting that much money while a car was making insane turns and dives. It would have been a brief respite when the car finally stopped, but that only put the pressure on him even more, as he knew it meant the heroes were getting close.

"Did you make sure to snag my device, too? We don't want them getting any evidence."

Wykkyd nodded a second time, and pulled out the metallic device, handing it over to Gizmo. Gizmo took it and grinned slyly, admiring his own work.

"If it beeps and has a little red light, they ALWAYS think it's a bomb." He said out loud, though mostly complimenting himself a little. One could hardly hold it against him this time – it was a good idea.

"How much did we grab, Gizmo?" See-More asked, smirking a little, enjoying to be back in the old business.

"Must be at least over a hundred grand." Gizmo's smile grew wider. He was enjoying this too. Much more than going solo. Though he wouldn't admit it.

"Hot DAMN! That'd be enough ta roll 'round in!" Billy exclaimed, fumbling through the cash and looking at Wykkyd with a grin. They hadn't pulled a bank or armored car job in ages. "We could really do somethin' with this."

"Don't go thinking too far ahead," See-More cut in. "We have no idea how much money we're going to have to spend just looking for Mammoth. Speaking of, Gizmo, has your auto-search found any leads."

Gizmo slid his backpack off and set it down. A top component flipped open, revealing underneath a laptop styled computer. The screen flickered on to a large yellow 'G' symbol, and then gave way to the actual computer screen. Gizmo worked the mouse down to an icon the bottom right corner, double clicked and a window popped up.

Gizmo sighed. "Well, I've got a few news and police reports of convenience stores and the like being knocked over in…" His eyes ran over all the text rapidly, absorbing it. "New York, Houston, Tijuana, and a couple of other places. But the dates were only a little after he left the Hive Five. Not much to go on." In his head, he cursed, unsatisfied that he wasn't able to turn up much. Gizmo took pride in his craft, and when it didn't produce consistently outstanding results, he became frustrated. "So, I've got nothing." He grumbled. "How are we gonna do this?" He asked See-More.

See-More paused, and shrugged weakly. "I don't know. None of us were ever really detectives, were we?"

The rest of the team didn't say anything. They knew this wasn't their field. They just pulled an excellent robbery and set themselves up with some fairly choice select funds. But investigation? They weren't primed for that. Hive Academy didn't give them much background in it. Students were trained to create diabolical plots, not solve them.

"Well, you've got more than enough money now to supply all your gadgets, Gizmo, right?" See-More said, sitting down.

"Yeah. So?"

"So… that's something, I guess."

The room went silent. Gizmo, after a pause, distracted himself with more work, seeing whatever he could scrounge up, even after the auto-search. See-More stared off into space a little. Billy and Wykkyd sat together, and signed to each other about nothing in particular, just to pass the time.

Then, See-More's cell phone rang again.

See-More fished it out quickly, and Gizmo tossed him the same gadget he used before. A little flimsily, See-More hit the talk button, and slammed the device on the back of the phone.

"Samuel Beckinson?" The raspy voice said.

"Yeah, it's me."

"… Gizmo, good effort, but it's not going to work."

See-More went silent. Gizmo was going to be furious after the call once he saw the results.

"Anyway. I traced down something for your group."

"Give it." See-More said, not offering any of his usual relaxed attitude.

"Any of you ever knew Mammoth had a sister?"

"_What?_"

"Surprised me too. Mammoth – Real name, Baran Flinders. Brother of Selinda Flinders. But Mammoth's not so known familial ties isn't why I'm calling."

"The info. Now." See-More demanded.

"Well, way back when, even before Hive Academy, seems Baran and Selinda were brought to a Markovian scientist, by the name of Helga Jace. She specializes in metahumans."

"So Helga has Mammoth?"

"Don't jump to conclusions, Sam. Helga's just the link to the info. There's been reports out of Markovia that there's been some stolen files at her old lab there. Dug a little deeper than the news reports, and I found out that it was specifically Mammoth's old files stolen. Not even so much as a hint that they took anyone else's files, not even his sister's. Quite interesting, don't you think?"

See-More gritted his teeth. He didn't like being told, even indirectly, by some stranger on where to go and what to do. Especially not when it came to Hive Five business.

"So. Markovia."

"Yes."

"Give me an address and save Gizmo some work."

"You'll get a text message in a moment. I'll try to find more information after that. Goodbye, Sam."

The phone clicked off. Soon, a text message did come into the cellphone's inbox.

Gizmo rushed over, scanned the records – and his device failed to turn up a source a second time. He snarled, snatched the device off the back of the phone, and went back to his backpack.

See-More put the cell phone in his pocket and walked over to the tarp that was slung over the aircraft that Gizmo made. It was the Hive Five's personal transportation.

'Markovia', he thought to himself.


	5. Chapter 5

It was not an overly energetic trip to Markovia. Even if one is traveling on a privately created and owned state of the art plane with no one on it except the people you _want_ to be traveling with, old memories and awkward silences can still ruin it.

Gizmo piloted the ship, leaving Billy Numerous, See-More, and Kyd Wykkyd in the back with themselves, fiddling and trying to find something to discuss.

"So…how's being a college student workin' out fer ya?" Billy asked See-More, trying to break the boredom enveloping them.

"Uh? It's okay, I guess. Not as exciting as working with the Hive Five was, but it's reliable. Relaxing, sort of."

"That's cool."

"What about you, Billy? How've you and Wykkyd been?"

Wykkyd perked up at hearing his name and stopped reading a copy of The Great Gatsby. Billy answered first.

"Aw, it's been alright. Me an' him been pullin' jobs when we need to, an' we do lots of travellin'. Ah reckon it's a pretty damn good life. No worries, take what we want, go where we want, do what we want."

Wykkyd then said his piece, but in sign language.

'We have been well! Billy and I are very happy with what we do now. We've made friends in many places, and we don't get bored often. Life is good.'

See-More nodded at both of them, and flashed a little smile.

"Jeez, it's been…how long since the last time the Hive Five was together?" See-More said, looking up at the ceiling of the ship.

"Five years, bubba."

"Wow."

"Yeah."

The room went silent again, save for the occasional beep of a gadget of Gizmo's up in the cockpit going off.

"Why didn't any of us keep in contact over that time?"

Billy and Wykkyd shrugged simultaneously, which was as good an answer as any. There was no reason. There was no bitterness or dislike of each other – save for perhaps some still lingering spite towards Jinx that most of the Hive Five still held – why they had grown completely silent to each other over the ears.

It just happened. Why was not a factor.

"Dunno, Sam. Jus' didn't."

"Hey, idiots!" Gizmo shouted from the front. "We're touching down in Markovia soon! Get your crap together!"

See-More sighed a bit. He was hoping to feel a better connection to his teammates once again. Reunions were supposed to be good.

Then again, this was a reunion involving finding a teammate that had been supposedly captured and being abused.

While he got his uniform, helmet, and duffel bag together, he silently thought to himself that hopefully, he could bond with his old friends better once they didn't have this problem in front of them.


End file.
